I gotta be me...

My son was reading this and had an interesting question for me-what if the people who read this think that the picture I posted a couple of days ago is really me? I laughed and joked around and then...I thought, what if the people who read this think that picture I posted a couple of day ago is really me..NOOOOOOOOOOOOooooooo. James said "Mom, no one had made a comment after that post so it may be true." Let me just say..I have what might be called a bone dry sense of humor and will do nearly anything for a laugh. Also, I don't smoke. I 've been trying to find a picture of me that doesn't look like Dame Edna Everage but I'm coming up empty.
Yesterday, Roger took me out to the east end of the Island to the Tanger Outlet mall and then to lunch- We went to the Lobster Roll in Greenport or Mattituck I can't remember which, but it was fun and delicious. Not a lobster roll from Maine but delicious never the less. Then we visited friends who have a koi pond on their property. The koi had hundreds of babies. It was really neat... I'm off to finish some prep work on my son's new quilt and maybe I'll have pics on Mon. until then, have a great weekend everyone.

First you grab a bag full of squares....

Random scrap quilt for myself-Made from 5 inch sample squares from Hancocks in April Cornell fabrics. No time to be artsy. I need something warm to cover me and everyone but me has a quilt.

I'm not sure why this picture came out this way. It is revealing in that below the quilt you can see evidence of the large male pack rat that lives here. In his defence, there are a number of places in our house where he could store his paperwork if not for the fact that our son, James, has taken over with various computer and media items. What space remains is taken over my....well...me. He's a good natured spouse and so it all comes out well in the end except that there are stacks of things here and there. This quilt is one of the first things I made way back in the early '90s. It's very cheerful and bright and this part of my house is on the dark north side. We live on a large hill and at about 2:30 the sun is over on the other side of the hill and behind a forrest of trees. This works in our favor in the summer when we are glad for the sun to go away in the heat of the day-not so much in the winter. Here is a picture of what I collect other than fabric. That's a shot of half the bookshelf and on top are a couple of my husbands antique toy trains. I'd like to say that this is the whole collection of books but I would be lying-There's another bookshelf and two upstairs-all full. Hello my name is Dee, I'm a

bookaholic....The last picture is of a far wall in my livingroom where we are doing some prep-work for painting. I have removed a hideous border from around the window in preparation for new paint, coming soon. On the wall is a small piece I did using Aunt Grace repros. I had made one for my niece and liked the brightness-it's coming out wobbly in the pic but I think that's because I tried to re-size the pic. I'll figure out this stuff eventually in the mean time thanks for looking and reading and welcome to my home....Come on in, have a cup of tea and visit.

Got a Light?

Who says I can't be

fashionable?

I have several things to do today and among the most important is to buy some new things to wear. I am currently trying to walk more each day and diet(ugh!) because I have reached alarming proportions. The most alarming is that nothing I own fits me any longer. Since I live in a very damp and cold winter place, I don't hink I can wear my linen shirts and pants much longer. There's definitely a chill in the air. So, with that in mind I have to do one of the worst things-and that is buy clothes that I plan to wear only till I loose weight. It's just so depressing and should be foremost in my mind when I am thinking about what to eat. Basically I try to follow the Weight Watchers path. This is how I lost 55 or so lbs. a number of years ago. Dieting really is the worst. I just have a hard time caring that much about it. I care, but I'm easily distracted and I have friends who bake-really well. My motivation in this is that my cholesterol and sugar were above normal last time I went to the Dr. So I walk and try to be more active. Not easy for a sedentary person like me. Everything I like to do involves sitting- reading, sewing, artwork, watching dvds....you name it. We have a treadmill in the basement and I'd better get there before I find something else to distract me from that mission.

Regarding the elections, let me just say this YAHOO!!! and as an aside let me say that the people of Tenn. are so foolish as to leave me speechless.. It's not my state but picking Coarker over Harold Ford is a travesty that will cost them. As for the rest....again.....YAHOOO!! It's areal shame that it took 7 years and thousands of young lives to send a message to George and his cronies though. That's my story and I'm stickin' to it. Hope you have a great day-I'm going to work on my son's quilt today and then look for some material to make a Quilt of Valor.

Patience-- not always a virtue,Bob, & good eats

This is a picture of an antique quilt that my friend Rich sent me from auction he went to in Pa. Dutch country. It only had a spot or two and he wanted to know if it was worth all the money they were bidding it up to. I think it went for about $400. The best thing at the auction was a quilt that looked so blahhh that you wouldn't give two cents for it...in fact it looked like white sheeting that was stained..but wait...the person who had made it was really covering up what was inside. They had used a quilt as the batting- I kept thinking why was this quilt in this auction. It was not up to the standards of anything else offered and the quilting was horrible big stitches and randomly placed here and there. Turned out it was something called Dove in the Window inside and went for over $500.-hot stuff no???

Well, this morning was a test of patience for me. One of the most annoying things in life is waiting in a Doctor's office, especially when it 's not for me. I know that sounds terrible but I worked for a Dr. at one time and I ran that place like a very tight ship. We scheduled things so people didn't have to face insult to injury by having to wait an hour for a visit. Well, any way my brother-in-law Bob had to have oral surgery from a Dr. that we had never used before-now it all turned out great but they told us to be there at 10 so we left at 9:30 which got us there about 15 min. early for paperwork. I think they factor in the paperwork to take about half an hour because we waited 40 min. just to get in and another half hour to get finished. I read a third of a book(speed reader here) I just started, the place was really warm, and in sympathy for Bob I didn't eat breakfast(really dumb move as I am a cranky baby when I'm hungry) The reason it was so warm was that they had so many damn lights on overhead it seemed like I was in a tanning bed. They were the kind of overhead spots like I have in my kitchen which I never use in the summer because it makes it about 10 degrees hotter in an already hot kitchen. Geez it was hot in there along with being a colossal waste of energy. Anyway-Bob's O.K. and I came home and made myself something to eat while he went to bed for a rest and a Percoset. Sweet dreams Bob....

I got my fabric in the mail today from Hancocks for my son's quilt. He picked out several from the Alexander Henry Asian line that have dragons and Kanji and such. I think I will find a way to showcase the dragons by making it very strippy. Maybe long columns of dragon fabric in between long stips of Kanji and a wild spider mum in deep intense red and gold and black. I'll take some shots of the fabric tomorrow and post pics. I haven't made him anything since he was much younger and at 22 he's outgrown the kid sized quilts a long time ago. We still have them-one of cowboy boots and western theme, and one of airplanes and related items- I get a kick out of looking at them, as beat up as they are-they still make me think of how adorable he was-my blue-eyed boy....sign. He will be mortified when he reads this-of course Dani will laugh at him. When I went on vacation to Maine she had to show him how to use the washing machine(he's so full of it) and I just thanked her. I was secretly glad she did some stuff for him since everytime he gets involved with laundry something gets ruined and it's never his. Well, I picked up a bunch of shrimp and some scallops to saute with garlic and tomatoes to make a putanesca sauce. I bought a jar of Frances Ford Copolla's spaghetti sauce and it's the best and most delicious jar sauce I've ever eaten. It's very expensive but the putanesca and mamarella are soooo fresh and delish it's worth every penny. I can't make sauce better than that and I learned from a great old Italian lady. Sauce from a jar is a curse that I would normally spit at someone but this stuff is excellent for instant gratification. Never mind that you could make a whole pot for what it costs for one jar.It's light and not cooked to death and has a lot of calamata olives and sprigs of basil and good olive oil. You don't need to do anything but open, heat, add(or not)whatever, and toss the al dente pasta right in the same pan. turn off the heat and add a heap of parmigiana reggiano or something like it and grab a fork and some good brunello or a nice sangiovase..mmmmm...I'm adding the seafood to mine-somebody bring the bread-dinners at 7. Leave the guns, bring the cannoli, Do you know what movie that's from?

Dani's stars and buttons

I'm finally getting the hang it-sort of. This is the quilt I just finished for Dani, my son's girlfriend. It's not a very good picture but all of those stars are made from Bali fabrics. In between the rows are buttons in all different colors and shapes. Some hearts, some stars, some flower shapes. It was really fun to make and I had never done stars before so it was a learning experience for me. In retrospect, I wish I had amde the background out of something other than white. It's a very pretty white on white but I think it would have really been sensational in pale bali with more intense stars-perhaps in another quilt to come. I didn't mean for both these pics to be together but they are and I'm not changing it now. I'll look for some more stuff to up-load and maybe tomorrow there will be more...

being good to the muse(and me)

I've been reading a lot of different blogs for a while and I see a theme running through a some of them. Pledging to not buying fabric. It is spoken of as if it's a the road to enlightenment and goodness. It's a funny thing because it reminds me of my good friend Terry- she's another of the quilt ladies I know and a very hard working very talented person. Funny thing about Terry is that she seems to feel that she doesn't deserve to be happy. I'm not sure what happened back in the days of her childhood but I suspect that someone repeatedly told her that she was an unworthy child-unworthy of praise, nurturing, warmth, whatever. It makes me mad and sad and we have a close enough relationship that I'm happy to tell her how talented she is and that she is, indeed ,deserving of praise.Plus I can relate to the whole abuse thing. Now don't go writing me any nasty comments but I have long suspected that it has something to do with her Catholic upbringing. Even she says that. My husband, who was raised Catholic says that too. I think it had a lot to do with Sister Mary Margaret slapping her with a ruler every time she looked happy or proud.
ANYWAY...I digress. The thing about Terry that relates to the reading of some of these blogs is that I sense a theme of self deprivation when it comes to buying fabric and fun stuff. There was a whole month where people actually signed up...signed up to NOT buy fabric. Lordy, Lordy Let me grab a glass of water and fan myself for a minute on my fainting couch............O.K., better. This is how I see that. Quilting is my art, my love, my talent. Quilting is where I challenge myself to make something really pretty and pleasing to myself and hopefully, others. Why in the name of sweet Jesus would I want to rob myself of the pleasure of buying something to further that joy. I can find a dozen different ways to prove myself a strong person with moral fiber in other areas of my life-why would denying myself fabric prove anything. Maybe it's a catholic thing? Maybe we need to self flagellate somehow to feel better about ourselves? Buying fabric and quilting stuff makes me really happy. I've suffered enough in my life and at nearly 60, I'm no longer sure how much fabric buying time I have. Besides what will my friends have to fight over when I'm gone but my fabric. Lotta bitch slappin' going on there.
Well, todays entry will be short, at least for now-maybe I'll write more later. There's a video store around the corner that has been driven out of business by Blockbuster and is selling out all the stock for rock bottom prices. I'm going to take a look to see what foreign movies and other dvds they have left. Maybe I'll find a few good oldies too, not a lot of people are old movie buffs. I need to go grocery shopping too. Making fish tacos if I don't forget my list-need limes and avocado and mini corn tortillas. Maybe after that I'll get totally crazy and hit the fabric store. Maybe I'll buy something. Maybe not....whatever I choose to do, it won't be because I'm "saving myself" for fabric.......Hope you have a beautiful day

Sewing Sunday, movies and cool, cool, women

Today I actually got around to using my sewing machine and making something-well...the begining of something, after all I'm no Debra Spincic. I want to thank Debra for taking me to the Houston quilt show in her pocket and I loved the quilt she chatted with me in front of. Thanks Debra. Anyway, I worked on a quilt for....tah dah...ME. Afew months ago I bought several packets of die-cut squares from Hancocks from the April Cornell line. The colors are very springy andpretty like sherbet. Yellows and limes and pinks-polka dots and paisley and hibiscus flowers in those shades as well as pale aqua and melon. It's a riot of color, especially for me. I work with Amish brights and black a lot so this is a departure. I decided to bag the idea of doing anything fancy and instead just use the squares and as is. The only deviation from this was making half square triangles from some. Anyway-my thinking was that I would have an actual quilt for me for the winter in soft girly colors. My bedroom is very white with cherry furniture and so it is easily adaptable to most anything I like..and I likeee!
The One thing that kept me from accomplishing stuff this weekend was that I rented several DVDs-I got Elizabeth I and I got the first 3 dvds of "Big Love" the HBO show about the Mormon family with Bill Pullman who is the husband of 3 wives. The first two episodes sort of set it up in terms of characters and they're not bad at all but by the fourth episode you really get into these peoples strange lives.If any of you know who Bruce Dern is-in this he plays a role that must have been written for him. He's the Patriarch of a Mormon Poligamist family and he plays a completely crazy and disgusting human being. He's so darn good at it that it makes you wonder what he's really like. It's really good and I almost went back today to get the rest but I'll wait for tomorrow. I read a review of a new movie by Pedro Almodovar called Volver with Penelope Cruz(she's in all his movies) and I am looking forward to seeing it. I just recently saw his movie "all about my mother" which was great and served two functions-my son is taking a foreign film elective and he needed me to see it and review it for him. It was very moving and in the movie he incorporates one of my favorite old movies "All about Eve" as part of his movie. Warning-it has subtitles but I speak some Spanish so it made life a bit easier. I couldn't watch Elizabeth I (which is the reason I wnet to the video store) because I didn't realize that it was a 2 dvd set and all I got was disc 2 AGH!
Well, I suppose I should go and see how much I an get done before I slowly fade into the sunset. This getting dark at 4:30 reall sucks. I want to thank Debra for the chat in front of a beautiful quilt and Melody for just being...well...Mel. By the way-If DebR is reading go get yourself a copy of "Climbing the Mango Trees", by Madhur Jaffrey. It's a lucious book full of writing that makes your mouth water and your soul sing....see you tomorrow